Meat 'Cupcakes' with Sweet Potato 'Icing'

 Don't be afraid. I know the pairing of 'cupcakes', 'icing', and 'meat', sounds extremely questionable, but I can ensure you they are yummy!

 For those of you who don't already know, our family is living a paleo life style, so I am trying new recipes as often as I can. It can be hard to find good paleo recipes, so I have decided to start collecting them here!

 *you don't have to be paleo to enjoy these recipes!!

Please keep in mind, i take recipe ideas, and make them up as I go along. so you can do the same and skip/decrease/increase the ingredients if you like.

Meat cupcakes with sweet potato icing:

•  1 lb ground beef
• 1 egg
• 1/2 an onion finely chopped
• 1 stalk celery finely chopped
• 2 clove garlic finely chopped

* Next time, I will pop the onions, celery, and garlic into the bullet (or food processor) and make a paste. We(Cody especially) are not a huge fan of having the little chunks of veggies in our meat.*

Okay, So like I said, I winged this recipe, so I don't have exact measurements. I just gave the following a good shake into my meat mixture according to my taste preference. (for those of you who need measurements, i will give you my best guess.)

• sea salt (abo 1 tsp)
• black pepper (abo 1 tsp)
• thyme (abo 1 tsp)
• oregano (abo 1 tsp.. maybe slightly over, because I like it.)
• a good squirt of ketchup (close to 1/4 C)
• 1 tbs butter

 You can also add Worcestershire sauce, a tad of honey, chili pepper flakes. (since I cook for a  toddler, I didn't add these.)

 **Basically, this is just a meat loaf recipe, so if you have a favorite meat loaf recipe, you can just use that!**

Mix all ingredients together with clean hands until well combined.

 pre-heat oven to 350F

Place meat mixture in non-stick muffin pan, or use paper liners (NOTE: I don't recommend greasing the muffin tin. I have a very good/new non-stick pan, and I greased it anyway. they were swimming when the came out! (still yummy, but needed a good pat and drip off.) )

Pack your meat mixture into the muffin tin very well. (I only filled them basically, and the sort of shrunk. which was fine, but i suggest packing them a little more.)

Bake for 20 minutes, or until meat loaf is done.


Sweet potato icing:

• 1 large sweet potato

While meat loaf is baking, peel and cut your sweet potato into small chunks  (about an inch and a half both ways.- they will cook faster.)  add water to cover sweet potato, and boil until soft when poked with a fork.

 When Sweet potato is done, drain water, and mash. Add abo 2 tbsp butter, and a splash of your milk of choice. (we use almond.) -Just like you're making regular mashed potatoes!

 If you'r fancy, place mashed sweet potato in a plastic baggy, cut a small part of one of the corners off, twist up the top, and ice like a cupcake. -If you'r not, grab a spoon, and slap some sweet potato onto you'r meat muffin.

EAT IT. They are really good! I served ours with broccoli.

 I ended up needing a really quick dinner two days later, and I couldn't use our stove or microwave( i hate microwaves anyway haha), these made a really yummy cold dinner later! Or snack!

From our family to yours - Enjoy!!

Recipe I got inspiration from: HERE